BORN TO BE WILD 3D (IMAX)

BORN TO BE WILD is an adorable IMAX documentary on the lives of orphaned elephants and orangutans. Morgan Freeman narrates the documentary as it swings from orphaned elephants in Kenya to orphaned orangutans in the rainforests of Borneo.

Dr Birute Mary Galdikas has decided to spend her life in the rainforests of Borneo saving orphaned orangutans. Orangutans are on the verge of extinction, which leads Dr Galdikas’ crew to search out orphans and bring them into shelter at the Orangutan Care Center and Quarantine. The Orangutan Care Center has 130 local staff to take care of the 300 orangutan orphans who will eventually be released into the wild.

The orphans are very young and need nurturing. They will not be able to stand alone in the wild just yet. In order to help the baby orangutans develop, they each have a keeper to take care of them and act as a mother. Truly acting as a mother figure, the keeper helps bathe the orangutans, bottle feeds the orangutans, and even sings them to sleep. In order to be protected, the orangutans learn to swing back and forth on an enclosed jungle gym.

Once the orangutans are old enough and show signs of independence, the team takes them away from the completely sheltered care center to the Seruyan Forest. Following two eight-year-old orangutans throughout the movie, they are now ready to be released into the wilds of the Seruyan Forest. The two are transported in a metal cage. Once the door is opened, they question their surroundings, hesitate, and finally step into the wild.

Dr. Galdikas has created Camp Leakey, a place where scientists and students can come and stay to study the environment.

Very similar to the orphaned orangutans, the movie follows orphaned elephants in Kenya. Dr. Dame Daphne M. Sheldrick has decided to fight for the lives of orphaned elephants. Dame Daphne has 50 keepers who have looked over 130 orphaned elephants, so one day these orphans can be released into the wild of Tsavo’s National Park.

The first step to finding the orphans is for the rescue crew to be on search at all times. The movie shows the find of a baby elephant in the midst of huge male elephants that wanted to protect the baby, but didn’t have the milk it needed to grow. In order for the elephants to be saved from this situation, the rescue crew had to drive their car into the male “bull” elephants and push them away from protecting the baby. The baby elephant is then taken to the Nairobi Elephant Nursery.

Studying the elephants and seeing their needs, the keepers watch over them at all times, even sleeping in the same room with the baby elephants. Over many years Dame Daphne has created a special milk formula for the elephants to feed on to grow. Once the elephants are old enough, they are transferred to Tsavo National Park.

Interesting and entertaining, BORN TO BE WILD is highly adorable as the audience watches baby orangutans and elephants grow. The movie does have an environmentalist undertone, but it’s not as blatant as expected. The animal keepers have a sort of odd relationship with the animals, valuing them almost as a human baby and, once older, seeing them as “understanding friends.” Despite these environmentalist undertones, the movie has a good heart, shows the dominion of people over nature, and is very fun and cute.